Still in Ukraine (not The Ukraine)

Yes, we  are still here, in spite of the Russians being in Crimea, just a few hours south of us. Garry is determined to stay, after all, most of the people we know here cannot leave, even if they want to. I have been concerned enough to check into prices for plane tickets, but caught an amazingly terrible cold on Saturday and really want to feel better before flying for 37 hours (counting connections.)

I hesitant to leave Garry alone here, just think of what he might do without me to nag him into being more careful! Sunday there was a big rally of people supporting the government in Dnepropetroesk - right where I took the photos the previous two Sundays. There were thousands of people there, cars parked all over. Garry insisted on going there after church and lunch (Puzata Hata was rather empty) He had to park several blocks away, and I stayed in the car reading (I really wanted to head home since I was feeling worse.)

There were a number of people walking down the sidewalk who had obviously been at the rally, wearing yellow and blue ribbons or carrying Ukrainian flags. Young couples, old couples, young guys, older men  in two and threes heading back to their car or homes. One middle-aged couple were walking a with teenage son on either side of them, the mother carrying a blue and yellow flag.

Garry said he ran into someone from our English group. She told him that they were there to stand with the government in the hope of the end of corruption in Ukraine. The crowd were listening to speeches, singing the national anthem (some of the words translated are Ukraine will never die...) They were also chanting PUTIN HET - which Garry was told meant Putin go home. He told me he saw a man with a big Canadian flag so he went over to talk to him. It turned out he did not know much English but told Garry that his brother lives in Canada and it is the best country in the world.

At church we talked with a couple with who speaks English. They have three children and say if the Russians come, they will head for the western border, and hope to get in, they need to renew their foreign passports. It seems the world is not as concerned about these wonderful people as they were when Iraq invaded Kuwait, since all the news says is no country can send troops to fight the Russians, diplomacy is the only hope.

We have been watching the BBC and CNN and constantly (except when they had that trial on from South Africa, wow is that boring! It's amazing that the fate of one guy is more newsworthy than that of 46 million people) and still they have reporters who say the Ukraine instead of Ukraine, which according to people here is like saying they are part of the Soviet Union, instead of their own country... which is rather bad form considering the current crisis with Russia.

By the way, when they talk about Crimean cities, they need to pronounce not  Ste-vast-opol but Stev- a-stow-pole and Simferopol (the capital city) sounds more like Sim- fair-o-pole, to be more like the local pronunciation. When we were in Crimea just two weeks ago, half the billboards had STOP Maidon posters on them. Recent developments make you wonder who bought all that advertising....
The local people definitely were getting news that the people in Independence Square in Kiev were being paid by the US or EU to be there, and that they were like Nazis.

It says Stop Maidon= Crimea (Krem) is for stability -